Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actor John Lithgow will visit the College on Saturday to perform "Stories by Heart," a one-man show that he conceived and wrote based on personal stories from his life. Lithgow will perform at 8 p.m. in Spaulding Auditorium as part of the Hopkins Center's 50th Anniversary Celebration weekend.
In his show, Lithgow seeks to "trace his roots as an actor and storyteller," mixing personal stories with popular narratives that were read to him by his father and grandmother as a child, according to the actor's website. These stories include "Uncle Fred Flits By" by P.G. Wodehouse, which details one wild afternoon in suburban London that the main character spends with a crazy uncle, and Ring Lardner's "Haircut," about a gossipy barber in small-town Michigan that gives a shave to a stranger.
The show itself is a reflection on the art of storytelling and its importance to the history of humanity, demonstrating the range of Lithgow's acting ability and strong connection with his audience.
"It's a meditation on storytelling," Lithgow said in an interview with The New York Times. "It's very personal to me, but it ends up a great flamboyant performance."
The Hopkins Center chose to ask Lithgow perform as part of the Hop's celebratory weekend because he is an internationally renowned artist who connects with a broad audience, according to according to Hopkins Center programming director Margaret Lawrence.
"In sports, you'd call a guy like Lithgow a triple threat," Lawrence said. "He's known best for television, but he's had a really high-caliber career in live acting on stage, on Broadway and off. He's also done feature films."
The Hopkins Center began planning Lithgow's visit to campus 10 months ago, about as soon as they set the date for the celebratory weekend, Lawrence said.
"It's a fascinating show that he's developed himself," Lawrence said. "It really allows him to stretch out and show what a multidimensional actor he is."
Lithgow conceived the show after his father's death in 2004, according to The Times' review. In the last years of his father's life, Lithgow brought books to read to his father in the hospital and found that he was returning to the same stories from his childhood.
The staging for the show is scant the props for Lithgow's performance at the College will include only a chair, lamp and carpet, according to Lawrence. This minimalism is intentional, as the force of the performance is meant to come from Lithgow's connection with his audience, according to his website.
"The props just give him a place to be because once he starts, he's going to be off and running all over the stage," Lawerence said. "With his experience in live theater, he'll make sure that everyone is with him every step of the way."
The actor also has the stories memorized so that his storytelling is loose, and he is able to better focus on the characters. The readings take about 45 minutes each, and the show will have one intermission, according to Lawrence.
"All theater is stories and in my show, Stories by Heart,' I bring stories to life," Lithgow said in a promotional video for his show. "I play all the parts, I punch up the funny bits, I ramp up the suspense before the big comedy brawl. It's not just stories it's theater."
The show also capitalizes on the actor's malleability, according to his website. For example, Lithgow transforms himself into 11 different characters in his reading of the Wodehouse story alone, one of which is a parrot.
Coming to the show just to see Lithgow play a parrot is worth the price of admission, Lawrence said.
"He's just brilliant the way that he moves between characters," she said. "There's going to be lots of laughter, but maybe some tears, as well."
The tickets for the show have not sold out yet, but Lawrence said she expects Spaulding to be "filled to the rafters" for the show's performance. Many of tickets reserved for students have already been sold.
The show's concept originated in 2008, when Lithgow first performed a reading of the Wodehouse story for a few friends in a Lincoln Center dressing room, including Andre Bishop, artistic director for the theater, and Jack O'Brien, who staged "The Coast of Utopia" at the theater, according to The Times. The two then encouraged Lithgow to expand the personal narrative in his storytelling, and Bishop scheduled Lithgow in performances on Sunday and Monday nights in the spring, when Lincoln Center would otherwise be closed. O'Brien directed the project. In his performances at Lincoln Center, Lithgow also interacted with the audience members in lieu of a true intermission.
After this Saturday's show at the Hopkins Center, Lithgow will share a night cap with interested fans in the Hayward Ballroom of the Hanover Inn, according to the Hopkins Center's website. Admission to the night cap event is sold through all-access ticket packages for the full weekend of events, Lawrence said.
Lithgow is currently finishing a national tour of "Stories by Heart," which he most recently performed in Kansas, Tennessee and New York. His next project is the lead role in "The Magistrate," a farce about Victorian England, which will premiere at the National Theater in London later this fall or winter. The show will be broadcast live via simulcast at the Hopkins Center, Lawrence said.
Lithgow has acted on Broadway, in television and in feature films, and he is the recipient of two Tony Awards, five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. He most recently starred in the Broadway production of "The Columnist," which finished its run in June. Lithgow has appeared on Broadway 20 times and is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame.
